Atheist Nexus2017-12-14T01:17:26ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheisthttp://api.ning.com:80/files/kZzo8PgK6neQN4AfxW4EG8lio8WXn0XSgqGXhrjLcnz6wFQSa-7LXzOI*ItARRbbgifycjdTrRuWIx0iU2Ci9jHlOgwyAvvH/genericprofilepicture.png?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://atheistnexus.org/group/atheistmorality/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=16cd9zmxoijrb&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThe Moral Outrage Guilt Curetag:atheistnexus.org,2017-07-08:2182797:Topic:27550812017-07-08T03:47:40.149ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>I haven't purchased this, but this abstract is intriguing.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11031-017-9601-2" target="_blank">A cleansing fire: Moral outrage alleviates guilt and buffers threats to one’s moral identity</a></p>
<blockquote><h2 class="Heading">Abstract</h2>
<p class="Para">Why do people express moral outrage? While this sentiment often stems from a perceived violation of some moral principle, we test the counter-intuitive possibility that…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I haven't purchased this, but this abstract is intriguing.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11031-017-9601-2" target="_blank">A cleansing fire: Moral outrage alleviates guilt and buffers threats to one’s moral identity</a></p>
<blockquote><h2 class="Heading">Abstract</h2>
<p class="Para">Why do people express moral outrage? While this sentiment often stems from a perceived violation of some moral principle, we test the counter-intuitive possibility that <span class="font-size-3">moral outrage at third-party transgressions is sometimes a means of reducing guilt over <em class="EmphasisTypeItalic">one’s own</em> moral failings and restoring a moral identity</span>. We tested this guilt-driven account of outrage in five studies examining outrage at corporate labor exploitation and environmental destruction. Study 1 showed that personal guilt uniquely predicted moral outrage at corporate harm-doing and support for retributive punishment. Ingroup (vs. outgroup) wrongdoing elicited outrage at corporations through increased guilt, while the opportunity to express outrage reduced guilt (Study 2) and restored perceived personal morality (Study 3). Study 4 tested whether effects were due merely to downward social comparison and Study 5 showed that guilt-driven outrage was attenuated by an affirmation of moral identity in an unrelated context. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="Para">While the researchers mention moral outrage over corporate wrongdoing, the first image that leaps to my mind is the self-righteousness of right wing hate radio and the GOP "red meat" strategy to whip up support.</p>
<p class="Para"><a href="http://15130-presscdn-0-89.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Limbaugh-Ditto-Cam.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://15130-presscdn-0-89.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Limbaugh-Ditto-Cam.jpg?width=300" width="300" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p class="Para"><a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2016/03/21/rush-limbaughs-hate-radio-network-home-facing-20-billion-bankruptcy.html" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p class="Para">So people can restore their <span>perceived personal morality by angry moralizing against a hapless group or individual, after they've act like assholes. It's like an indulgence, but instead of paying off a church <em>you get to indulge</em> in even more nastyness, all guilt-free. Wait, isn't that what abusers do when they beat up their wives for imagined wrongs?</span></p>
<p class="Para"><span>Ah, a moral equivalent of "easy tricks and tips", much less bother than actually working through your moral failings and doing better, to clear your conscience.</span></p>
<p class="Para"><span><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/KuQ51V-KPve3QmGHxTHG6xAXYVjHGqk412mcIkfsUbt6MJIMRZWnxsABGCmSSPlvSJftiGnL8CIWItikpYmqlBIfFITe7op0/easy.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/KuQ51V-KPve3QmGHxTHG6xAXYVjHGqk412mcIkfsUbt6MJIMRZWnxsABGCmSSPlvSJftiGnL8CIWItikpYmqlBIfFITe7op0/easy.jpg" width="350" class="align-center"/></a><a href="https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2017/07/07/fridiy-repurpose-your-easy-button-to-send-slack-alerts/#.tnw_T3TJ5CJ8" target="_blank">image source</a> (rim label mine)</span></p>
<p class="Para"></p> Addicted to Escapetag:atheistnexus.org,2016-12-14:2182797:Topic:27238742016-12-14T21:55:57.122ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>With the decay of US politics into fascism, in a world of destabilizing climate, fantasy tempts us to escape. That's addiction's call, like an alcoholic's first drink at breakfast. Chris Hedges points out that Trump is a product of our escapist world. I struggle with this addiction. <strong>Addicts lose their moral compass.…</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>With the decay of US politics into fascism, in a world of destabilizing climate, fantasy tempts us to escape. That's addiction's call, like an alcoholic's first drink at breakfast. Chris Hedges points out that Trump is a product of our escapist world. I struggle with this addiction. <strong>Addicts lose their moral compass.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/okqgQ6*kCKQTQypVDGLGNSF0cpCdFGHdfB1o3ujNvdZ3tBaHT3UO26br5pR7ORxcdRDlx456B7rpLSvLYjwpa4huYcMGd*6S/magicic.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/okqgQ6*kCKQTQypVDGLGNSF0cpCdFGHdfB1o3ujNvdZ3tBaHT3UO26br5pR7ORxcdRDlx456B7rpLSvLYjwpa4huYcMGd*6S/magicic.jpg" class="align-center" width="250"/></a><a href="http://beaufortcountynow.com" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Trump is the sick expression of a dysfunctional political system and mass culture that celebrate the most depraved aspects of human nature—greed, a lust for power, a thirst for adulation and celebrity, a penchant for the manipulation of others, dishonesty, a lack of remorse and <strong>a frightening pathology in which reality is ignored. He is the product of our escapist world of constant entertainment.</strong> He embodies the mutation of values in American society that has culminated in an enormous cult of the self and the abandonment of the common good. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/demagogue-in-chief_20161211" target="_blank">Demagogue-in-Chief</a></p>
<p>A frightening pathology...</p>
<p>frightening pathology...</p>
<p><a href="http://drugabuse.com/wp-content/uploads/500x375xdrugabuse-shutter323428325-addict-mixing-drugs.jpg.pagespeed.ic.U62iY4y_Iy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://drugabuse.com/wp-content/uploads/500x375xdrugabuse-shutter323428325-addict-mixing-drugs.jpg.pagespeed.ic.U62iY4y_Iy.jpg" class="align-center"/></a><a href="http://drugabuse.com/library/lethal-drug-combinations/" target="_blank">image source</a></p> Sam Harris The Case Against Christianitytag:atheistnexus.org,2015-09-23:2182797:Topic:26456522015-09-23T14:14:30.211ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>Sam Harris The Case Against Christianity </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mwJEI4HqcE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mwJEI4HqcE</a></p>
<p>Sam Harris The Case Against Christianity <br></br>Sam Harris offers his case against the Christian god concept</p>
<p>Samuel Benjamin "Sam" Harris is an American author, neuroscientist, philosopher, the co-founder and chief executive of Project Reason, a non-profit organization that promotes science and secularism…</p>
<p></p>
<p>Sam Harris The Case Against Christianity </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mwJEI4HqcE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mwJEI4HqcE</a></p>
<p>Sam Harris The Case Against Christianity <br/>Sam Harris offers his case against the Christian god concept</p>
<p>Samuel Benjamin "Sam" Harris is an American author, neuroscientist, philosopher, the co-founder and chief executive of Project Reason, a non-profit organization that promotes science and secularism</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9mwJEI4HqcE?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p> Morality as Contagiontag:atheistnexus.org,2015-08-29:2182797:Topic:26405942015-08-29T17:28:46.451ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>The purity component of morality always repelled me, as conservatives interpreted it as racism. But this morning it makes sense to use a disease metaphor for systemic corruption. Discussing climate change and politics, Naomi Klein said,</p>
<blockquote><p>We have … a political class that doesn’t believe it should be governing. It’s constantly looking for ways to get out of the way of markets. As long as that continues, we will just keep talking about this problem, as we’ve done for the past…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The purity component of morality always repelled me, as conservatives interpreted it as racism. But this morning it makes sense to use a disease metaphor for systemic corruption. Discussing climate change and politics, Naomi Klein said,</p>
<blockquote><p>We have … a political class that doesn’t believe it should be governing. It’s constantly looking for ways to get out of the way of markets. As long as that continues, we will just keep talking about this problem, as we’ve done for the past 25 years.</p>
<p>I think we need to be very careful raising expectations over Paris – there won’t be a deal in line with the science.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/27/naomi-klein-on-climate-change-i-thought-it-best-to-write-about-my-own-raw-terror" target="_blank">Naomi Klein on climate change: 'I thought it best to write about my...</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The Koch brothers are going to spend upwards of one billion dollars on the 2016 election, and the sheer fact that they both have this kind of spending money and that <strong>they can legally use it to buy politicians</strong> is beyond absurd. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://ringoffireradio.com/2015/08/bernie-sanders-makes-koch-brothers-the-face-of-corporate-greed-feel-the-bern/" target="_blank">Bernie Sanders Makes Koch Brothers The Face Of Corporate Greed; Feel The Bern!</a></p>
<p>Then I read about how Jeb Bush got $1.3 million or so from Lehman Brothers in exchange for $1 billion sucked out of police, teachers' and firefighters' pensions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-jeb-bush-got-13m-job-lehman-after-florida-shifted-pension-cash-bank-2059224??" target="_blank">Election 2016: Jeb Bush Got $1.3M Job At Lehman After Florida Shifted Pension Cash To Bank</a></p>
<p>I'm still struggling to integrate the knowledge that a 2°C rise is generally agreed to be the tipping point at which permafrost would start a meltdown cycle that wouldn't end until our planet resembled the great extinction. Yet we've already locked in that much rise. It's just a question of whether the out-of-control spiral will start before 2100 or a few decades later.</p>
<blockquote><p>... most official decarbonization goals around the world call for decarbonization to occur at a rate that wouldn't see a greater than 2° Celsius prevented,...</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://sustainnovate.ae/en/innovators-blog/detail/report-world-needs-to-completely-decarbonize-within-30-years-or-climate-cha" target="_blank">Report: World Needs To Completely Decarbonize Within 30 Years, Or Climate Change To Be “Significant”</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The generally accepted ‘tipping point’ for large permafrost store release tends to be in the range of 2 degrees Celsius. The problem is we’ve already emitted enough CO2, methane and other greenhouse gasses to warm the Earth by 2-4 degrees Celsius long term and by around 1.4 to 1.9 degrees Celsius this Century.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.com/read/post/feed/36293756/791000322" target="_blank">Top Scientist — Threat of Catastrophic Permafrost Thaw is “Real and Imminent”</a></p>
<p>So how will future adults make sense of today's politicians, leading up to Paris? We've already committed the planet to a runaway climate scenario, and we're bickering over which countries get to burn even more fossil fuel in coming decades. The official "scientific" report, IPCC, gave every country's politicians line by line veto, <em>as if</em> they were objective scientists.</p>
<p>It makes sense to me <span style="color: #800080;"><strong>to see these leaders as infected,</strong></span> tainted, corrupted by fossil fuel money, out-of-control trans-national corporations, and predatory banks. Imagine if each actor's systemic-rooted <span style="color: #800080;"><strong>profit-over-planet malevolence</strong></span> were visible as a color. Perhaps a 2050 TV documentary of today would show the infected people more or less purple, and only a few Greenpeace activists and ordinary climate refugees a normal color.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/FzBIK0EevxBsBigCa3BNgbKAh4OFOe5yhnBdpIl*sHFuwGRXu0Ju7i46Ybqk3Xoyoq6XHc7Uwdpr17ovDEiFFkfMeFtTCDOI/purpletrump.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/FzBIK0EevxBsBigCa3BNgbKAh4OFOe5yhnBdpIl*sHFuwGRXu0Ju7i46Ybqk3Xoyoq6XHc7Uwdpr17ovDEiFFkfMeFtTCDOI/purpletrump.jpg" width="400"/></a><a href="http://theodysseyonline.com/ui/donald-trumps-best-worst-tweets/116170" target="_blank">image source (purple mine)</a></p> Testosterone and Cortisol together raise cheatingtag:atheistnexus.org,2015-07-29:2182797:Topic:26333732015-07-29T18:47:53.667ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p><a href="http://www.psypost.org/2015/07/the-hormones-testosterone-and-cortisol-influence-unethical-behavior-study-finds-36227" target="_blank">The hormones testosterone and cortisol influence unethical behavior, study finds</a></p>
<p>Cheating relieves stress?</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p>“Elevated testosterone decreases the fear of punishment while increasing sensitivity to reward. Elevated cortisol is linked to an uncomfortable state of chronic stress that can be extremely debilitating,”…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.psypost.org/2015/07/the-hormones-testosterone-and-cortisol-influence-unethical-behavior-study-finds-36227" target="_blank">The hormones testosterone and cortisol influence unethical behavior, study finds</a></p>
<p>Cheating relieves stress?</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p>“Elevated testosterone decreases the fear of punishment while increasing sensitivity to reward. Elevated cortisol is linked to an uncomfortable state of chronic stress that can be extremely debilitating,” Josephs said. “<strong>Testosterone furnishes the courage to cheat, and elevated cortisol provides a reason to cheat</strong>.”</p>
<p>Additionally, <strong>participants who cheated showed lowered levels of cortisol and reported reductions in emotional distress after the test, as if cheating provided some sort of stress relief</strong>.</p>
<p>“<strong>The stress reduction is accompanied by a powerful stimulation of the reward centers in the brain, so these physiological psychological changes have the unfortunate consequence of reinforcing the unethical behavior</strong>,” Josephs said.</p>
<p>Because <strong>neither hormone without the other predicted unethical behavior, lowering levels of either hormone may prevent unethical episodes</strong>. Prior research shows that tasks that reward groups rather than individuals can eliminate the influence of testosterone on performance; and, many stress relieving techniques such as yoga, meditation and exercise reduce levels of cortisol, Josephs said. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.alwaysresearching.com/files/2015/07/math_hand_1170.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.alwaysresearching.com/files/2015/07/math_hand_1170.jpg?width=400" width="400"/></a><a href="http://www.alwaysresearching.com/2015/07/29/can-hormones-turn-us-into-cheaters/" target="_blank">image source</a></p> Torture - symptom of Decadencetag:atheistnexus.org,2014-12-15:2182797:Topic:25202622014-12-15T19:26:06.893ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/americas-torture-machine-no-aberration-its-part-our-imperial-decline?paging=off&amp;current_page=1" target="_blank">America's Torture Machine Is No Aberration—It's Part of Our Imperial Decline</a></p>
<p>The US torture policy reveals our decadence, says Andrew O'Hehir. Decadence, meaning a people or society seeking its own deterioration and destruction, is already obvious in our global fossil fuel addiction, in my view. But embracing torture…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/americas-torture-machine-no-aberration-its-part-our-imperial-decline?paging=off&amp;current_page=1" target="_blank">America's Torture Machine Is No Aberration—It's Part of Our Imperial Decline</a></p>
<p>The US torture policy reveals our decadence, says Andrew O'Hehir. Decadence, meaning a people or society seeking its own deterioration and destruction, is already obvious in our global fossil fuel addiction, in my view. But embracing torture reveals the visceral edge of our Seppuku.</p>
<blockquote><p>…a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-worst-findings-waterboard-rectal" target="_blank">summary version</a> of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture of terror-war prisoners. … a truncated and redacted highlights reel, whose release was opposed by the Obama White House, the Republican congressional leadership and of course the CIA itself.</p>
<p>… Detainees forced to stand on broken legs, or deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours, or … “rectal feeding and rehydration” … sounds as if it had been borrowed from … horror films…</p>
<p>Torture is a symptom of America’s cultural and political disease, not the disease itself,…</p>
<p>… torture godfather Dick Cheney ... Cheney has never pretended to believe in anything except power, and is untroubled by the fact that the “America” his methods are “keeping safe” bears no relationship to the one in the schoolbooks.</p>
<p>… professor Mark Danner observes that war … exposed American military might as a paper tiger,... It has made us look both weak and evil.</p>
<p>… <strong>the criminal acts meant to keep us safe have stripped us bare before the whole world as a lawless and decadent empire that doesn’t look as if it’s worth saving</strong>.</p>
<p>… a successor president who has moved on from the threadbare legal arguments used to classify torture as non-torture to the breathtaking position that he holds the right to order the push-button execution of anyone in the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/shutterstock_227661337.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/shutterstock_227661337.jpg"/></a></p>
<blockquote><p>… in Nietzsche’s discussion of “<strong>decadence</strong>,” an important concept in his philosophy, he defines it as <strong>a quality that leads people or societies to seek their own deterioration and destruction</strong>. (Nietzsche was certainly no fan of democracy, but he also noted that decadent societies were characterized by severe social and economic inequality and a lack of moral and intellectual leadership.) [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p> Defining Evil in today's worldtag:atheistnexus.org,2014-05-20:2182797:Topic:24259742014-05-20T17:28:01.902ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>Many to whom I've spoken claimed that the Koch brothers are evil. At first it seemed like anachronistic, theistic language, unsuited to contemporary liberal minds. But I've gradually been coming around to seeing them as the embodiment of the worst humanity has to offer.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2014/11-things-koch-brothers-dont-want-you-know-robert-greenwalds-newly-updated-documentary?paging=off&amp;current_page=1#bookmark" target="_blank">11 Things The Koch Brothers…</a></p>
<p>Many to whom I've spoken claimed that the Koch brothers are evil. At first it seemed like anachronistic, theistic language, unsuited to contemporary liberal minds. But I've gradually been coming around to seeing them as the embodiment of the worst humanity has to offer.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2014/11-things-koch-brothers-dont-want-you-know-robert-greenwalds-newly-updated-documentary?paging=off&amp;current_page=1#bookmark" target="_blank">11 Things The Koch Brothers Don't Want You To Know, From Robert Greenwald's Newly Updated Documentary</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/screen_shot_2014-05-19_at_2.17.41_pm.png"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/screen_shot_2014-05-19_at_2.17.41_pm.png"/></a>Review the 11 facts, and tell me if you disagree.</p> Climate Destabilization Is Violence From Abovetag:atheistnexus.org,2014-04-08:2182797:Topic:24065552014-04-08T17:07:09.057ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/climate-change-violence-occupy-earth" target="_blank">Call climate change what it is: violence</a></p>
<p>Rebecca Solnit makes the case that Climate Change is violence of fossil fuel corporations against people.</p>
<blockquote><p>If you're poor, the only way you're likely to injure someone is the old traditional way: artisanal violence, we could call it – by hands, by knife, by club, or maybe modern hands-on violence, by gun or…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/climate-change-violence-occupy-earth" target="_blank">Call climate change what it is: violence</a></p>
<p>Rebecca Solnit makes the case that Climate Change is violence of fossil fuel corporations against people.</p>
<blockquote><p>If you're poor, the only way you're likely to injure someone is the old traditional way: artisanal violence, we could call it – by hands, by knife, by club, or maybe modern hands-on violence, by gun or by car.</p>
<p>But <strong>if you're tremendously wealthy, you can practice industrial-scale violence</strong> without any manual labor on your own part. You can, say, build a sweatshop factory that will <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/bangladesh-factory-building-collapse-community">collapse in Bangladesh</a> and kill more people than any hands-on mass murderer ever did, or you can calculate risk and benefit about putting poisons or unsafe machines into the world, as manufacturers do every day. If you're the leader of a country, you can declare war and kill by the hundreds of thousands or millions. And <strong>the nuclear superpowers – the US and Russia – still hold the option of destroying quite a lot of life on Earth.</strong></p>
<p><strong>So do the carbon barons. But <span class="font-size-4">when we talk about violence, we almost always talk about violence from below, not above</span>.</strong></p>
<p>Or so I thought when I received a press release last week from a climate group announcing that "<a href="http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2014/03/climate-change-makes-violence-likelier/">scientists say there is a direct link between changing climate and an increase in violence</a>". <strong>What the scientists actually said</strong>, in a not-so-newsworthy <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v476/n7361/abs/nature10311.html">article in Nature</a> two and a half years ago, <strong>is that there is higher conflict in the tropics in El Nino years, and that perhaps this will scale up to make our age of climate change also an era of civil and international conflict</strong>.</p>
<p>The message is that ordinary people will behave badly in an era of intensified climate change.</p>
<p>All this makes sense, unless you go back to the premise and note that climate change is itself violence. Extreme, horrific, longterm, widespread violence.</p>
<p>Climate change is anthropogenic – caused by human beings, some much more than others.</p>
<p>Rather than worrying about whether ordinary human beings will react turbulently to the destruction of the very means of their survival, let's worry about that destruction – and their survival.</p>
<p>People revolt when their lives are unbearable. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/-mTQ4UXPt9nRj*WkiPNzoZpTrEThbt1LYYHVjci6IpVAOnHpmBF9zfNkH2T4jBALo1N84pWlww-DmaxTuDf0wcxlxb4Imj1G/wranglingprofit.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/-mTQ4UXPt9nRj*WkiPNzoZpTrEThbt1LYYHVjci6IpVAOnHpmBF9zfNkH2T4jBALo1N84pWlww-DmaxTuDf0wcxlxb4Imj1G/wranglingprofit.jpg" width="400"/></a></p>
<blockquote><p>In every arena, we need to look at industrial-scale and systemic violence, not just the hands-on violence of the less powerful. When it comes to climate change, this is particularly true. Exxon has decided to bet that we can't make the corporation keep its reserves in the ground, and the company is reassuring its investors that it will continue to profit off the rapid, violent and intentional destruction of the Earth.</p>
<p>... the revolt against brutality begins with a revolt against the <strong>language</strong> that <strong>hides that brutality</strong>. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote> What avoiding germs has to do with democracy, dictatorship, and our most cherished beliefstag:atheistnexus.org,2014-04-08:2182797:Topic:24061992014-04-08T07:47:15.350ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>An interesting article. This could also relate to conservatives (but not liberals) valuing purity as a moral standard and being more sensitive to disgust.</p>
<p>With global climate destabilization and increased warming, beginning not in a few decades but <em>now</em> -- <a href="http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/climate-concerns/forum/topics/climate-changed-in-siberia" target="_blank">Siberia</a> is getting unprecedented "midsummer" temperatures in April! -- leading to pathogens thriving in…</p>
<p>An interesting article. This could also relate to conservatives (but not liberals) valuing purity as a moral standard and being more sensitive to disgust.</p>
<p>With global climate destabilization and increased warming, beginning not in a few decades but <em>now</em> -- <a href="http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/climate-concerns/forum/topics/climate-changed-in-siberia" target="_blank">Siberia</a> is getting unprecedented "midsummer" temperatures in April! -- leading to pathogens thriving in more places, are we in for more authoritarianism, hierarchy, xenophobia, and religion?</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/bugs-like-made-germ-theory-democracy-beliefs-73958/"><img class="align-right" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/at5DaH0Gs6mtuLZs8pJAqFazO-RxqSQjSroaKEiKFdoE54HiX43IxUNwFCP9m*mAgDeZrmsY8GJ8n9EmIVocc54VzCBIQcj1/mosquitofeaturethegermtheoryofdemocracy.jpg?width=300" width="300"/></a><span class="font-size-4"><strong>The Germ Theory of Democracy, Dictatorship, and All Your Most Cherished Beliefs</strong></span></p>
<p>(Ethan Watters, <em>Pacific Standard</em>)</p>
<p><em>... <strong>deep interactions between local pathogens and human social evolution may explain many of the basic differences we observe between cultures.</strong> How does your culture behave toward strangers? What kind of government do you live under? Who are your sexual partners? What values do you share? All of these questions may mask a more fundamental one: <strong>What germs are you warding off?</strong></em></p>
<p><em>The threat of disease is not uniform around the world. In general, higher, colder, and drier regions have fewer infectious diseases than warmer, wetter climates.... According to the “pathogen stress theory of values,” the evolutionary case that Thornhill and his colleagues have put forward, our behavioral immune systems—our group responses to local disease threats—play a decisive role in shaping our various political systems, religions, and shared moral views.</em></p>
<p><em>If they are right, Thornhill and his colleagues may be on their way to unlocking some of the most stubborn mysteries of human behavior. Their theory may help explain why authoritarian governments tend to persist in certain latitudes while democracies rise in others; why some cultures are xenophobic and others are relatively open to strangers; why certain peoples value equality and individuality while others prize hierarchical structures and strict adherence to tradition. What’s more, their work may offer a clear insight into how societies change. According to Thornhill’s findings, <strong>striking at the root of infectious disease threats</strong> is by far <strong>the most effective form of social engineering</strong> available to any would-be reformer....</em></p>
<p><em>... severe pathogen stress leads to high levels of civil and ethnic warfare, increased rates of homicide and child maltreatment, patriarchal family structures, and social restrictions regarding women’s sexual behavior....</em></p>
<p><em>... Higher temperatures, elevated sea levels, and increased precipitation in some areas—all predicted to accompany climate change—are expected to bring tropical diseases to higher latitudes and elevations in the coming decades. <strong>Pathogens that once perished in cold climates and dry soils may find new congenial zones of heat and moisture, and new host populations.</strong> Incidents of dengue fever in the U.S., for example, are expected to spread beyond Hawaii and the Mexican borderlands as climate change creates expanding habitats for the mosquito that carries the virus. Unless effective health interventions ward off these new threats, humans in ever higher latitudes may again have to resort to their embedded psychological and cultural defenses. Collectivist group behaviors may yet stage a comeback.</em></p>
<p>(emphases added)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/bugs-like-made-germ-theory-democracy-beliefs-73958/" target="_blank">Read the entire article</a></p> How Religion can make you happy to kill! - Thunderf00ttag:atheistnexus.org,2014-01-14:2182797:Topic:23660412014-01-14T14:53:16.538ZA Former Memberhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DallasGaytheist
<p>We talk a lot about the aberrant nature of religion and how its "morality" is so badly skewed by a deity who does as he/she/it pleases and whose actions are presupposed to be moral for no other reason than BECAUSE that deity did them.<br></br><br></br>It's another thing entirely to witness a conversation wherein someone espousing that belief system actually asserts that they would indulge in actions which to any of us would seem completely beyond the pale, but that he would engage in for no more…</p>
<p>We talk a lot about the aberrant nature of religion and how its "morality" is so badly skewed by a deity who does as he/she/it pleases and whose actions are presupposed to be moral for no other reason than BECAUSE that deity did them.<br/><br/>It's another thing entirely to witness a conversation wherein someone espousing that belief system actually asserts that they would indulge in actions which to any of us would seem completely beyond the pale, but that he would engage in for no more reason than that they were endorsed by his god.<br/><br/>This is another one of those videos you may not want to see on a full stomach.<br/><br/><br/><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/K2Rx4cW6E6Y?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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